Transfer of Learning After Updating Training Mediated by the Striatum

In the citing paper

“Both younger and older adults improved on the practiced task. Transfer to another working-memory task requiring continuous updating was reliable in younger adults but not in older adults.”

In the citing paper

“Dahlin et al. (2008) conclude that the observed age differences in plasticity are connected to age-related changes in the striatum”

In the citing paper

“Extending this to the neural level, it is plausible that transfer occurs if the training and transfer tasks engage overlapping processes and neural circuits26,51.”

In the citing paper

“there is no consensus regarding transfer to inhibitory control measures, with some WM training studies reporting training-related benefits59,60,71,72, yet others failing to find evidence of transfer51,73.”

In the citing paper

“Alternate versions51 of ETS Surface Development Test, ETS Form Board Test, and DAT Space Relations were grouped (As and Bs together) for administration at pre- and post-test, the order of which was counterbalanced across participants.”

In the citing paper

“These regions have been implicated in performance on the N‐Back previously (Dahlin, Neely, Larsson, Bäckman, & Nyberg, 2008; Kubat‐Silman, Dagenbach, & Absher, 2002; Schaefer et al., 2006; Takeuchi et al., 2010; Zou, Hong, Wang, Gao, & Yang, 2011).”

In the citing paper

“Training on updating and switching tasks (Dahlin et al., 2008; Karbach and Brieber, 2010) has been shown to reduce activity in fronto-parietal networks and increase activity in the striatum (see also Olesen et al., 2004)”

In the citing paper

“The data they report are consistent with this position, with transfer to an n-back task following training on running span. However, this study lacked an active control condition for comparison with running span training, potentially over-estimating the specificity of any training effects to updating in particular.”

In the citing paper

“In contrast, according to the process-specific account of Dahlin et al. (2008), both tasks employ a common updating process that can be enhanced by training and will therefore show transfer.”

In the citing paper

“On the other hand, process-specific explanations of transfer as reflecting increases in the efficiency of individual processes within WM (Dahlin et al., 2008; Minear et al., 2016; Sprenger et al., 2013) struggle to explain why some shared task features and processes are sufficient for transfer whereas others are not.”

In the citing paper

“This is consistent with the idea that transfer occurs mainly when training and transfer tasks activate overlapping brain regions [26, 35–37].”

In the citing paper

“They found no near transfer to WM span tasks [27], however, nor any far transfer to selective attention [26], perceptual speed, fluid intelligence, verbal fluency, or other episodic memory measures [27].”

In the citing paper

“using the running memory paradigm as a training task, different authors demonstrated nearest transfer effects on other WMU tasks, such as the n-back task [25–28], and far transfer to episodic memory tasks [27].”

In the citing paper

“There is evidence that longer training leads to more learning in terms of more pronounced changes in brain regions involved in WM function (Dahlin et al. 2008; Lövdén et al. 2010).”

In the citing paper

“the potential generalization of the training might be enhanced by the use of different tasks recruiting the particular targeted process.”

In the citing paper

“Dahlin et al. (2008), for example, proposed that updating the contents of working memory is trainable.”

In the citing paper

“Note, though, that the present findings do not distinguish between these two alternative accounts, which claim that transfer is limited either by process (Dahlin et al., 2008) and paradigm Gathercole et al. (2019).”

In the citing paper

“The lack of cross-paradigm transfer is consistent with theories that explain training gains in terms of working memory processes specific to particular paradigms.”

In the citing paper

“Although Dahlin et al. (2008) did this and found improvements in the untrained task, the study lacked an active control condition.”